The guy looks like a parody of an Italian gigolo, and apparently acted the same way. Supposedly, according to the European press, he was at a table with a bunch of babes that he had sorted out from among the passengers and was showing off with the stunt of passing by close enough to the island where his maitre d’s family lived to give a blast on the horn for their entertainment. He also emptied the safe before he got under a blanket and had himself rowed to shore (while most of the passengers were still on the ship). Then he hailed a taxi and said “take me as far away from here as possible.”
What a sleazoid. I’m sure most Italian captains aren’t like this, but I think the image is going to do a lot of damage to the Italian cruise industry. Costa was owned by Carnival, but it was an Italian company with a mostly Italian crew.
People have no idea what protections they forfeit when they leave these United States; I couldn’t imagine a captain of an American ship doing this. His life would be ruined.